A letter from Peter Abelard ()

Translated letter:

Heloise my sister, once dear to me in the world, now dearest to me in Christ, logic has made me hated by the world. For the perverted, who seek to pervert and whose wisdom is only for destruction, say that I am supreme as a logician, but am found wanting in my understanding of Paul. They proclaim the brilliance of my intellect but detract from the purity of my Christian faith. As I see it, they have reached this judgement by conjecture rather than weight of evidence. I do not wish to be a philosopher if it means conflicting with Paul, nor to be an Aristotle if it cuts me off from Christ. For there is no other name under heaven whereby I must be saved. I adore Christ who sits on the right hand of the Father. I embrace in the arms of faith him who acts divinely in the glorious flesh of a virgin which he assumed from the Paraclete. And so, to banish fearful anxiety and all uncertainties from the heart within your breast, receive assurance from me, that I have founded my conscience on that rock on which Christ built his Church. What is written on the rock I will testify briefly. I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; the true God who is one in nature; who comprises the Trinity of persons in such a way as always to preserve Unity in substance. I believe the Son to be co-equal with the Father in all things, in eternity, power, will and operation. I do not hold with Arius, who is driven by perverted intellect or led astray by demoniac influence to introduce grades into the Trinity, laying down that the Father is greater and the Son less great, forgetting the injunction of the Law, 'You shall not mount up to my altar by steps.' He mounts up to the altar of God by steps who assigns first and second place in the Trinity. I bear witness that in everything the Holy Spirit is consubstantial and co-equal with the Father and the Son, and is he who, as my books often declare, is known by the name of Goodness. I condemn Sabellius, who, in holding that the person of the Father is the same as that of the son, asserts that the Passion was suffered by the Father -- hence his followers are called Patripassiani. I believe that the Son of God became the Son of Man in such a way that one person is of and in two natures; that after he had completed the mission he had undertaken in becoming man he suffered and died and rose again, and ascended to heaven whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. I also declare that in baptism all offences are remitted, and that we need grace whereby we may begin on good and persevere in it, and that having lapsed we may be restored through penitence. But what need have I to speak of the resurrection of the body? I would pride myself on being a Christian in vain if I did not believe that I would live again. This then is the faith on which I rest, from which I draw my strength in hope. Safely anchored on it, I do not fear the barking of Scylla, I laugh at the whirlpool of Charybdis, and have no dread of the Sirens' deadly songs. The storm may rage but I am unshaken, though the winds may blow they leave me unmoved; for the rock of my foundation stands firm.

Original letter:

Soror mea Heloissa, quondam mihi in saeculo cara, nunc in Christo carissima, odiosum me mundo reddidit logica. Aiunt enim perversi pervertentes, quorum sapientia est in perditione, me in logica praestantissimum esse, sed in Paulo non mediocriter claudicare. Quumque ingenii praedicent aciem, christianae fidei subtrahunt puritatem. Quia, ut mihi videtur, opinione potius traducuntur ad judicium, quam experientiae magistratu. Nolo sic esse philosophus, ut recalcitrem Paulo; non sic esse Aristoteles, ut secludar a Christo. Non enim aliud nomen est sub coelo, in quo oporteat me salvum fieri. Adoro Christum in dextera Patris regnantem. Amplector eum ulnis fidei in carne virginali de Paracleto sumpta gloriosa divinitus operantem. Et ut trepida sollicitudo, cunctaeque ambages a corde tui pectoris explodantur, hoc de me teneto, quod super illam petram fundavi conscientiam meam, super quam Christus aedificavit ecclesiam suam. Cujus petrae titulum tibi breviter assignabo. Credo in Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum sanctum; unum naturaliter et verum Deum: qui sic in personis approbat Trinitatem, ut semper in substantia custodiat unitatem. Credo Filium per omnia Patri esse coaequalem, scilicet aeternitate, potestate, voluntate et opere. Nec audio Arium, qui perverso ingenio actus, imo daemoniaco seductus spiritu, gradus facit in Trinitate, Patrem majorem, Filium dogmatizans minorem, oblitus legalis praecepti: Ad altare quippe Dei per gradus ascendit, qui prius et posterius in Trinitate ponit. Spiritum etiam sanctum Patri et Filio consubstantialem et coaequalem per omnia testor, utpote quem bonitatis nomine designari volumina mea saepe declarant. Damno Sabellium, qui eamdem personam asserens Patris et Filii, Patrem passum autumavit; unde et patripassiani dicti sunt. Credo etiam Filium Dei factum esse Filium hominis, unamque personam ex duabus et in naturis duabus consistere. Qui post completam susceptae humanitatis dispensationem passus est et mortuus, et resurrexit, et ascendit in coelum, venturusque est judicare vivos et mortuos. Assero etiam in baptismo universa remitti delicta; gratiaque nos egere, qua et incipiamus bonum, et perficiamus, lapsosque per poenitentiam reformari. De carnis autem resurrectione quid opus est dicere, quum frustra glorier me christianum, si non credidero resurrecturum? Haec itaque est fides in qua sedeo, ex qua spei contraho firmitatem. In hac locatus salubriter, latratus Scyllae non timeo, vertiginem Charybdis rideo, mortiferos Sirenarum modulos non horresco. Si irruat turbo, non quatior. Si venti perflent, non moveor. Fundatus enim sum supra firmam petram.

Historical context:

This letter is Abelard’s "confession of faith," addressed to Heloise and preserved in a longer letter from Berengar, a student of Abelard’s, to Bernard of Clairvaux, defending Abelard and criticizing his enemies, including Bernard, see Cousin 2.771-86 and PL178 c.1857-70. Abelard spells out the main tenets of his faith, distinguishing his beliefs from major heresies, rejecting philosophy if it cuts him off from Christ, and ending with classical images. The letter is introduced by Berengar after an assertion of Abelard’s catholicism with these words: "for Peter writes to the handmaid of God, Heloise, educated in sacred letters beyond all others, a very intimate letter which among other things contains these words."

Printed source:

Opera Petri Abaelardi ed. V. Cousin, 2v (Paris: A Durand, 1849, 1859), 1.680-81; also in PL178 c375-78; trans. Betty Radice, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974), p.270-71